Monday night saw Australian Test captain, Michael Clarke, awarded the Allan Border medal for the fourth time. On the same evening in Melbourne, he was also named as the Australian Test Player of the Year.

The other major awards of the evening went to Clint McKay, who was named as the One-Day International Player of the Year, and Shane Watson who took the Twenty20 International Player of the Year.

Clarke received 198 votes in the poll for the Border medal, which put him well ahead of Watson and the retiring Michael Hussey, who finished in joint second position with 165 votes each. David Warner and Mitchell Starc finished fourth and fifth places respectively.

Clarke had previously won the award in 2005, 2009 and 2012, and has become only the second player, after recently retired legend Ricky Ponting to have four Allan Border Medals to his name.

Clarke had a sensational year in Test cricket, during which he scored 1080 runs at an average of nearly 80, during the voting period, from February 25 2012 to to January 28 this year.

The highlight during the year was undoubtedly his consecutive double-centuries against the number one ranked team, South Africa. Clarke scored 259 not out at the Gabba, and followed that effort with 230 in Adelaide.

One of the few low points since Clarke took over the captaincy from Ponting, was suffering his first series defeat, by 1-0 to South Africa. However, he lead his side to victories against the West Indies in the Caribbean and a 3-0 whitewash against Sri Lanka.

Clarke won't need reminding, however, that those victories will count for nothing, if he can't bring more success in the coming tour to India, and the back-to-back Ashes contests which start later this year.